Defiant
but tactful Zelenskyy seeks to move on from White House fiasco
Ukraine’s
president says Oval Office meltdown best ‘left to history’, adding minerals
deal is ready to sign
Dan Sabbagh
Defence and security correspondent
Sun 2 Mar
2025 22.55 CET
A defiant
but tactful Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to apologise to Donald Trump after
Friday’s spat in the White House, and declared that the row in the Oval Office
“did not bring anything positive” to peace for Ukraine.
Speaking to
journalists only in Ukrainian at the end of a two-day visit to the UK, the
Ukrainian president said that when such delicate negotiations are held in
public “foes can take advantage of them” though he said he hoped the row would
eventually pass.
Though the
Ukrainian leader said there had been no communications at his level with the
White House since the meeting, a deal for the US to jointly exploit minerals in
his country was ready to be signed.
Zelenskyy
would not say whether he believed he had been ambushed when he was berated by
the US president and the vice-president, JD Vance, and insisted he would talk
to Trump again if “invited to solve the real issues”.
However,
when he was asked if would go back to the White House to “try again” to obtain
clearcut US support in talks to end the three-year war with Russia, Zelenskyy
said sharply he had not “come to try” on Friday.
He added: “I
travelled in the train for 12 hours, then for 11 hours I flew because the
president of the US invited me. The US is one of our main partners, and for me
it is a show of respect to be in the White House when the president of the US
invites me.”
Ukraine’s
president was speaking just before flying out of the UK, to which he had
travelled immediately after the disastrous White House meeting where he was
accused of not being grateful for US military support and was told Ukraine
could not win the war.
He also said
he believed that an Anglo-French-led peace effort, discussed by European
leaders in London on Sunday, would bear fruit “in the coming weeks” and
indicated there were supportive declarations from other countries – such as
Turkey, the Balts and the Nordics – to get involved.
The
conference in London also discussed “what security guarantees could be given to
Ukraine”, Zelenskyy said, adding that there had “been a very good start” in
Sunday’s discussion, and a number of countries would soon “speak for
themselves”.
But while he
said he was aware of a proposal from France and Britain for a one-month truce
in the fighting, he would not say if he supported it. Speaking at the end of
the interview he gave his only answer in English: “I am aware of everything.”
Ukraine
“will never” recognise any Russian annexation of territory it occupies, even if
it is to try to secure a peace deal, Zelenskyy added, and he repeated that he
would only accept a ceasefire if it was followed by robust security guarantees
that had the confidence of his country’s people.
Though
Russia has said it will insist on incorporating territories that it occupies,
for Ukraine it would always be “a temporary occupation”, Zelenskyy insisted,
even if his country lacks the military muscle to expel Russia from all of the
country at the moment.
Zelenskyy
said what he wanted “from partners” – a clear reference to the US White House –
was for them to remember that Russia launched the full-scale invasion of his
country three years ago. He did not want politicians rewriting history, he
said, to suggest “that there are two parties in this war and it is vague who
the aggressor is”.
The
Ukrainian president appeared to provoke Trump on Friday when he had said that
Putin “hates us” and “thinks we are not a nation”. Trump had spoken in Putin’s
defence and appeared to blame Zelenskyy for being embroiled in the war with his
larger neighbour.
The
Ukrainian leader refused to say what happened after the cameras stopped rolling
in the Oval Office on Friday, and before he abruptly left the White House
without having lunch or signing the minerals deal.
It has been
reported that Trump’s team asked Zelenskyy to leave, though the Ukrainian
president said it was best “to leave this to history”.
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